Title page from The History of English Law before the Time of Edward I, vol. 2

Part of: The History of English Law before the Time of Edward I, 2 vols. The History of English Law before the Time of Edward I, vol. 2

First published in 1895, Sir Frederick Pollock and Frederic William Maitland’s legal classic The History of English Law before the Time of Edward I expanded the work of Sir Edward Coke and William Blackstone by exploring the origins of key aspects of English common law and society and with them the development of individual rights as these were gradually carved out from the authority of the Crown and the Church.

Show more

Although it has been more than a century since its initial publication, Pollock and Maitland’s work is still considered an accessible and useful foundational reference for scholars of medieval English law. Volume two takes up different areas of English law topic by topic, or as its authors labeled it, “The Doctrines of English Law in the Early Middle Ages.” They consider land tenure, marriage and wardship, fealty, the ranks of men both free and unfree, aliens, Jews, excommunicates, women, and the churches and the King, before turning to the various jurisdictions of that decentralized era.

Buy this Book